Nightmares On Slum Street
by Rabid Chimera
Summary: After having her apartment trashed by a demon with a grudge, Lady is forced to move in with Dante. Troubling thoughts and rather shameful dreams keep her up at night, but that will soon be the least of her problems.
1. Chapter 1

__**Warnings:** Eventual D/L, Violence, Blood/Gore, Strong Language

**Disclaimer:** I do not own DMC, and I make no money from this story.

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_Well, it's been nice knowing this place._

Lady gave one last look around the apartment that had been her home for the past year and a half—or what was left of it, anyway. Shards of broken glass, tufts of cotton stuffing, and splintered wood littered the floors. The walls were severely cracked in several places, white dust from the smashed plaster powdering the carpet. An enormous splatter of reddish-black painted one wall; it looked like a large ink pen had exploded, which is the rather poor excuse Lady gave the landlord. It wasn't as if she could say it was blood from the demon she killed the night before. She had come back from a job across town to find a vengeful devil that it had been her misfortune to let escape trashing her apartment. She had put a bullet in its head when it soon lunged for her throat, but that couldn't undo the destruction surrounding her. Almost everything she owned and several items she didn't, unfortunately, were utterly mangled beyond repair. And the pay for that job? It all went to paying her furious landlord for the damage. She stared dejectedly at her broken coffee and end tables and her couch with its frame snapped in two and springs poking out of the ripped up cushions. She knew it would be a long time before she would be able to replace her beautiful furniture, and she had been so proud when she had earned the money to buy it all, too.

"Hey—are you gonna get outta here, or do I have to call the cops? I've already got someone here to take care of this damn mess, so get lost!"

Lady turned around to the podgy, greasy form of her landlord. She simply rolled her eyes, though he wouldn't be able to see behind her glasses, and stepped out onto the catwalk with her luggage in tow. She had managed to stuff all her clothes, which the demon thankfully hadn't touched, toiletries, and anything else she deemed valuable that wasn't totally disfigured into a few suitcases. She loaded the bloated bags onto the back of her bike and strapped them down, along with Kalina Ann, hesitantly throwing her leg over and plopping down in the seat. She didn't want to leave; wasn't it human nature for one to grow attached to a place they have lived in for quite some time? Her apartment and all its previously intact contents had been a source of pride and comfort for many months. The poor woman felt utterly crestfallen.

"There's no point crying over spilt milk, I guess," sighed the dark-haired woman, jamming the key into the ignition and turning it with a bit too much force. The engine roared to life beneath her, and she made quick to speed off down the street, wanting to put the past behind her, though it was a little painful to see it go. It was a bit more painful, however, to think of where she would have to go next. With little money left in her pocket and no other friends, Lady would have no choice but to shack up with a certain devil hunter and all his trash and cold pizza. Devil May Cry was a dirty, disgusting bachelor pad. She was sure the guestroom hadn't been cleaned since Dante bought the place, and knowing that horny pervert, who knew what all could have happened in the guest bed? The very thought of staying there for more than one night made the dark-haired woman cringe, but it was that or sleeping on the streets.

_I'm sure the sanitary conditions are basically the same._

Lady muttered curses under her breath. The only thing worse than staying with Dante was asking Dante for help. It wasn't that the man cared to help her; no, Dante was terribly generous when it came to helping his friends, surprisingly. In fact, she would probably have to deny taking any offered financial assistance from him numerous times during her stay. However, Lady was a proud and confident, independent woman. The only thing she hated more than asking for help was asking Dante for help. She liked to feel superior toward him, and the debt she had held over his head, which he just recently paid off, unfortunately, gave her that feeling. Without it, her independence and the life she had made for herself were what kept Lady feeling as if she was a step, or several steps, above Dante the Devil Hunter. Now she would be indebted to him, and she could only hope he wouldn't hold it over her head.

The drive across the city was fairly quick. Traffic wasn't very bad at this time of day; everyone was working. Lady's bike also allowed her a bit more room to maneuver around obstacles than driving a car would. In a way, she wanted to prolong her travel to Devil May Cry, but at the same time, she was a little eager to see Dante again. With how busy she had been lately, she hadn't seen the man in months. As much as she hated to admit it sometimes, he was her best friend, her only friend. She couldn't help but wonder if he had changed at all in their time apart.

As she approached the devil hunting agency, Lady could see no difference in the storefront of that all-too-familiar building. That garish neon sign still hung on the front and Dante's convertible was parked by the curb in its usual spot. What was new, Lady noticed as she slowly came to a stop out front, was the shiny, black bike parked in the spot usually reserved for her during her visits. Arching a curious brow, Lady wondered if Dante had bought himself a new bike. Without her debt to be paid, Lady supposed the devil hunter had more financial freedom. The woman couldn't help but smile fondly. Dante and his toys—she supposed he did deserve a new one.

Parking her own bike in a new spot a little farther down the sidewalk, Lady unstrapped her items and lugged them along with her as she headed for the shop. She would have liked to leave them on the bike until she could find Dante and explain the situation, but she knew Dante's neighborhood quite well. If she wanted all her stuff stolen, she could leave her bags unattended for maybe five minutes, and half of her things could be missing by the time she came back. Lady wasn't too keen on the idea of losing any more of her possessions at the moment. Pushing one door open with her elbow, Lady squeezed inside and dropped all her heavy luggage with an exerted sigh. Carrying her enormous bazooka at the same time had made the task all the more difficult.

Looking around, Lady noted that not much had changed inside either. Strangely enough, however, it appeared that Dante had been trying to keep the place cleaner. Trash no longer littered the floors and there was only a thin layer of dust on everything, hinting that the man had tidied up about a week ago. And there was only one pizza box setting on his desk, rather than a tall stack of empty boxes and some whose contents were far past edible. Lady still doubted that Dante really cared all that much about how his place looked; it was probably all his extra time. The demon population had waned off a little recently and the man probably had more time on his hands. Time to be bored, that was. He wouldn't have cleaned otherwise, the woman was certain.

_Well, this is a pleasant surprise._

Lady smirked, a little happier knowing that she wouldn't have to clean Dante's sty for him. Speaking of which, where was he, anyway?

"Dante?" Lady called softly. There was a good possibility that the hunter was still asleep. In fact, Lady doubted that he would be awake this early. Rolling her eyes but with an odd sense of fondness that she really thought she needed to smack herself for, Lady made her way up the stairs to the devil hunter's bedroom. It was rather fun to drag him out of the bed. Like some lazy lion taking a catnap, he hated to be woken up. Lady smiled wickedly as she remembered several different techniques she had implemented to get him out of bed. Screaming in his ear, using an airhorn, tossing a bucket of ice water on him—you name it, Lady had probably done it. She had tried jerking the covers off him one morning, but upon discovering that Dante slept in the nude by her sudden view of his naked butt, the woman had decided against using that method in the future.

Slowly turning the knob of the hunter's bedroom door, Lady peeked inside, expecting to see a snoring lump under the red comforter. She furrowed her brow when she saw that the covers were thrown down and the bed was empty. Dante's clothes littered the floor, though his pants and boots were missing from the mess. He couldn't have gone on a mission in only his pants and Lady was sure he would have answered her back when she called. There was no way the man didn't hear her; with heightened senses and acute alertness, he couldn't have missed it.

"Dante?" Lady called out a little louder just to be sure. "You better not be playing some stupid trick on me!" Lady waited a few moments, expecting Dante to jump out behind her or something to try and scare her. However, several seconds tick by, and she received absolutely no response. She could hear no boots thumping down the hall, no responding call, no rustling from a hiding place, nothing.

_Where did that devil go?_

Shrugging, Lady headed back downstairs and gave the office another onceover. She felt the pizza box sitting on Dante's desk and discovered that the cardboard was still slightly warm. It hadn't been long since he had ordered it, and there were still two untouched slices inside, so he had to be nearby somewhere. One thing Dante never did was take off without finishing his pizza. Lady sighed and sat utterly stumped for a moment on the front of the devil hunter's desk, wishing she had Dante's ability to scent the air and follow people's trails. That was before she heard a rather loud curse from outside, followed by some muttered expletives.

_I knew he couldn't have gone far._

Lady quickly made her way back out the door, expecting Dante to be standing right outside. She didn't see him at first glance, however. It was only when she heard an odd, metallic cranking noise that she thought to look under the front of Dante's car. Sure enough, the hunter's lower half jutted out from under the red vehicle, grease smudges mottling his waist where it appeared he had scratched his stomach with dirty fingers.

"Well, well… Long time, no see. Is your piece-of-shit car messed up again?" Lady teased. Dante chortled from under the car, and Lady watched his stomach muscles work as he made the sound. Just as she had suspected from seeing the state of his bedroom, he was only in his pants.

"I was wondering when you'd find me," she heard from under the car. Nothing got past this devil. Lady gave him a slight kick to the hip for that. He only chuckled.

"Why didn't you say something? I looked all over for you."

Dante wiggled out from beneath the car, grimacing at the damage the asphalt had done to his back. He hopped up from the ground, dropping the wrench in his hand into a toolbox sitting nearby before briefly taking in the state of his greasy hands. There was even a little grease smudge on his cheek, and Lady had the ridiculous urge to wipe it off. It drew her to notice, however, the stubble growing on his jaw. It made him look a little older but not in a bad way. Definitely not in a bad way.

"What's with the whiskers?" She asked, playfully scratching his chin with a gloved finger. The man snorted and framed his jaw as if in thought, smiling in humor.

"You like it?"

"It'll take some getting used to, but it looks pretty good on you," Lady commented thoughtfully.

Dante smirked. "Thanks , babe. You don't look bad yourself," said the demon hunter, looking her over and seeming to spend a little more time on certain areas than Lady would have liked.

"My eyes are up here," Lady said with a scowl and slight irritation lacing her words.

"Yeah, but the party's down here," Dante purred, licking his lips and staring harder.

"Do you want to get shot?" The woman barked. It was a real threat; she had shot Dante plenty of times before and she would do it again. The man laughed and brought his attention back to her face.

"Chill—I'm just joking. I was just admiring your new wardrobe." Dante gestured to Lady's new attire and the woman smirked. She had recently bought herself a new uniform. It was about time as Dante had also bought himself some new clothes to hunt in. That was another thing she got to keep, at least.

"So what are you doin' here, anyway?" Dante asked rather curtly as he made his way back inside. Lady followed behind, used to Dante's less than polite behavior. "You need money, or did you really miss me that much?"

"Don't flatter yourself," Lady replied. "I'm only here because a demon wrecked my apartment and got me kicked out. I had to pay for all the damage done, so I obviously have nowhere else to go."

Dante seemed to make the same assessment as he saw her luggage sitting inside. The hunter nodded as he walked over and sat himself back behind his desk, grabbing a slice of cheesy, greasy pizza from the box still resting there before kicking back in his chair. The halfbreed nibbled on the slightly warm piece of pizza, frosty blue eyes focused on Lady as he seemed to wait for her to say more.

"So you don't mind at all?" Lady asked to be sure. She needed a place to stay, but that didn't mean she wanted to intrude. Dante had a life, too, after all.

"Why would I?" the hunter replied passively, just as laidback and careless as ever. There was a brief moment of silence before Lady turned and grabbed one of her bags.

"I guess I'll be taking these upstairs then."

She heard Dante's chair fall back onto all fours and turned to see the man gathering her luggage into one arm while balancing Kalina Ann on the opposite shoulder. She thought about telling him she could carry her bags by herself, but Lady then decided it was nice to have someone helping her. She smiled slightly and lead the way up to the guest bedroom. Dante let her things drop rather carelessly to the floor for which she gave him a brief scolding. He handled Kalina Ann with care, however, which attested to his appreciation of fine weaponry. Lady rolled her eyes a little at that but was glad he acted with more caution toward her most prized possession.

Not quite feeling like unpacking at the moment, Lady followed Dante back downstairs, where the hunter resumed his previous position. Lady took her usual seat on the front of his desk, fiddling with her skirt for a moment to have something to do in the sudden silence that overtook the room. She started slightly at a scraping sound, twisting to her right to see that the pizza box had been nudged in her direction. Smiling with a small chortle, Lady opened the box, taking the last slice. She thought she should be honored if Dante was willing to give her his last slice of pizza. That had to mean she was special.

For a quiet few moments, the two hunters ate in a comfortable silence. The room felt rather warm and familiar, and Lady realized that she had missed this—missed teasing and joking with Dante and dining with him at his desk. The golden sun shone through the windows, and Lady looked around at all the demon heads nailed to the walls, remembering how disgusted she had been when Dante first skewered them up there quite a few years back. She thought briefly of their time in the Temen-ni-gru but not of the bad times. She thought of meeting Dante there and how they walked out together once everything was over. Now they sat sharing pizza together, silenced by that similar awkwardness that had kept them distant when they first met.

_Just like the good old days._


	2. Chapter 2

**Warnings:** Eventual D/L, Violence, Blood/Gore, Strong Language

**Disclaimer:** I do not own DMC, and I make no money from this story.

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It was around seven in the morning when Lady rolled over and sighed at the old analog clock sitting at her bedside. She was never one to sleep late; she believed in being punctual and following a proper routine. Normally, she would already be awake at that hour. However, she had quickly found that the guest bed at Devil May Cry was not a comfortable one.

Lady had been pleased to find the bed wasn't as disgusting as she expected. Trish had stayed there recently, Dante informed her, and she had taken it upon herself to refurbish the bed with a whole new set of sheets. The duvet was a pearly pink and decorated with little buttons here and there—like the backrest of Dante's leather sofa. The sheets and pillowcases were white satin that glistened in the artificial light. Really, the bed made Lady question Trish's taste for décor. Maybe it would have looked nice in the right room, but in the drab guest room, it looked obnoxiously tacky. Maybe Trish was unaware of how horribly garish the bed looked in such a simplistic room, or maybe she wanted to pretend that when she was sleeping in that bed, she was sleeping in her dream room and not what looked like a renovated walk-in closet. Truly, the incredibly small size of the room made Lady feel a tad claustrophobic, but the room was the least of her problems.

Though Trish had purchased new sheets for the bed, she hadn't replaced the mattress. Lady wondered how old the thing was. She would have asked Dante if it was the same mattress he slept on in his childhood if she wasn't afraid of stirring up his worst memories. She probably didn't need to ask Dante, though, to guess correctly that he had snagged it from his old home. It whined every time she moved as if pleading she stop because she was actually causing it physical pain. When she laid upon it, she could feel springs stabbing her in the ribs and shoulders. It was made ever more uncomfortable by the fact that it slumped in the middle from never being flipped as a mattress should. She had tossed and turned through most of the night, barely gaining a collective three hours of sleep. Lady longed to sleep a for a few more hours, but she knew that evil mattress would never grant her anymore sleep. It had given her all it wanted to give.

Lady rolled out of the bed, almost tempted to bounce on it a few times as if doing so would cause it actual pain. She wanted revenge either way, and she made note to burn the mattress as soon as she earned enough money to buy a new one. She was dismayed every time she remembered that she was flat-out broke because she had to pay her stupid landlord for the damage that demon caused. Luckily, however, she had a job in a few hours, one that had sounded as if it would take quite awhile to solve by the man's description over the phone. She was to attend a brief meeting with him at ten before heading to the building where the demon that she was to exterminate resided.

"In that case, I better get ready," Lady whispered to herself. _I only have three hours._

Lady's first stop was the shower. She walked past Dante's bedroom on her way by and snickered when she heard his light snoring. He was a quiet sleeper, but his breaths were deep and loud—loud enough to be faintly heard beyond his thin bedroom door.

_At least someone's getting some sleep,_ thought the woman with a roll of her eyes. She wished she had slept in Dante's bed because he was making it sound delightfully comfortable. Then again, he was Dante. That man could sleep through anything, and he wasn't even a deep sleeper. It was almost as if he was a "selective waker," having some sort of seventh sense that allowed him to discern whether or not a loud bump or the feeling of a presence nearby was actually a threat. Lady supposed that was probably true. Being as alert as he was, if Dante hadn't adapted a method of filtering out meaningless sensory information as he slept, he would probably be woken up every few minutes. Lady had learned, after all, that a devil's senses were sharp enough to hear a pin drop, taste the air, and see through scents alone. Dante, though he was a half-demon, was no exception.

Lady smirked, happy that she wouldn't have to slow herself down by trying to keep from waking Dante. That was one of the many reasons she hated living with other people. If their schedules didn't meet up perfectly, roommates were forced to respect each others sleeping habits and try to keep quiet as death. Respectful roommates, anyway. Lady had lived with people before that seldom cared whether they woke someone up or not as long as they were never bothered when they slept. The few roommates she had had in the past had totally turned her off of ever living with anyone. After she established herself in the illustrious world of hunting demons, Lady hadn't needed roommates; she only found them in the first place to take the burden of half of her rent off her shoulders. However, now that she did have to live with someone, she was happy it was Dante. Besides those occasions when she couldn't convince him to stop talking, Dante was a very quiet creature.

Lady gathered some towels from the linen closet, setting them on the bathroom counter. She stripped and laid her clothes out neatly on the counter. They were still clean, so she wasn't going to bother changing into a whole new outfit. She opened the shower door, about to step in, eager for a few relaxing minutes under the warm spray. However, she froze in her tracks when she saw what awaited her in the drain. A fuzzy clump that she was certain was alive stared back at her from the tarnished silver drain. It was a wad of brownish gray pubic hair that had probably been there long enough to evolve and become sentient. Luckily, it hadn't reproduced in any way, but she was expecting it to split into two identical tufts of coarse, scraggly hair at any moment.

"Oh, my god!" she exclaimed in a whisper, twisting around in a show of disbelief and shock as if someone was standing behind her to share in her disgust.

_He didn't even bother to clean the shower? !_

After finishing her shower and dodging the wad she had dubbed "Fluffy," Lady vigorously brushed her teeth, staring at herself in the foggy bathroom mirror. Then, she moved on to fixing her hair, and her morning routine was finished. She made her way downstairs, a little unsettled with the newly found discovery that Dante's carpet didn't match his drapes. She brushed that thought to the back of her mind, choosing to ignore it. Maybe Fluffy was just a haunting apparition that would disappear if she stopped feeding it her blatant disgust and fear that it would become tangled in her toes if she didn't carefully hop around it during every shower.

Rolling her eyes, Lady found the yellow notepad that was always on Dante's desk so that he could record addresses and important details when someone called about a demon problem. She plucked the cheap, red pen from the desk and made a huge scribble in the corner of the paper until the ink started to flow smoothly. She then jotted down a brief note to inform Dante of where she had gone.

_Dante,_

_Gone out on a job. Should be back by 12._

_-Lady_

_P.S.-Clean your fucking shower!_

The ominous estate loomed over Lady like a disgusted god observing a tiny, futile insect. The estate was beautiful—or it should have been. The mansion was a classic white Victorian, but far larger than any building she had ever seen built in that style. The eaves were accented by elegant webs of wood, but she could only imagine terrible, ugly spiders calling their graceful patterns home. Sharp spires towered from the rooftops, and Lady imagined being impaled upon one. Rose bushes flourished all over the dark green grass, sporting healthy, full blooms, but she could only notice the sanguine of their petals and the sharp thorns that jutted from their stems. There was a fountain in the courtyard with an angel sitting pretty in the middle, but dark trails lead down her pallid cheeks. Had she been crying? The entire perimeter was surrounded by a wrought iron fence with more sharp points jutting from its top. The estate should have been beautiful, but it was as if perpetual storm clouds hung over it, painting everything gray.

Lady felt uneasy as she walked up to the door, her boots clicking on the cobblestone. She peered into the darkened windows of the highest floor, unable to see past the glass, but she could have sworn she saw a silhouette staring at her from between the tasseled curtains. Lady cursed the knot in her stomach, telling herself she was only imagining things, that her lack of sleep was making her delusional. However, that failed to explain why the hairs on her nape were standing on end.

Lady approached the grand doors, grabbing the heavy iron ring in a fierce lion's teeth and knocking three times on the door. She heard the knocks echo inside the mansion, and she imagined how empty the foyer was. The huntress stepped back, waiting for her knocks to be answered. A pasty white statue of a pineapple sat on a pedestal beside the door, a symbol of a welcoming home. It ceased to make her feel any less unsettled and uninvited. She glared at it as if hoping it would say something to make her feel better, but her attention was drawn abruptly away from it when the door finally opened. A stately man appeared from behind the white door. He wore a black suit and his trembling hands were hidden in pristinely white gloves. His expression was icy yet practiced as if he was told not to show emotion. He had a long, thin nose, all the better to point up at her. He was old, and his hair was white, combed over to thinly cover his balding crown. However, he was still a tall, strong looking man, his steel gray eyes almost intimidating. Lady couldn't help but find him snooty, but he didn't seem to be trying very hard to act friendly. He gave her a once-over as if sizing her up before speaking in a deep but listless voice.

"You are here to see Master Lannister?" His words carried the accent of a Brit, but they were slow and gravelly. She recognized him as the one who had called for her services. Whoever this "Master" Lannister was, he must have been incredibly lazy if he couldn't make his own phone calls.

"Yes," she answered, feeling as if she should say more, but Lady could think of nothing to say to the man. He was quiet for what seemed like a minute before he finally spoke again.

"Please come with me," he replied before stepping aside and gesturing for Lady to step inside. She nodded in thanks before stepping in out of the range of the door. The butler closed the door softly behind her before taking the lead and walking off down a long corridor between two flights of half-moon stairs. The floors were comprised of beautiful slats of dark mahogany. They were polished and glinted like new, but their tired creaking every now and then told Lady they were fairly old.

The butler eventually stopped beside a wide archway and gestured for her to step inside. He told her to please have a seat to wait on Master Lannister, and she sunk into the plush, rosy pink cushions of the camel-back loveseat. The room smelled of dust, and Lady was fairly sure she had stirred up a cloud of it when she sat down. She glanced behind her to see that the butler had disappeared, but she heard metal rattling a few moments later and turned again to find him shuffling through the archway with a silver tray. He placed the tray on the mahogany coffee table before her and then disappeared again.

Lady stared at the silver tray with hunger in her eyes. She had skipped breakfast because she had a long drive to that place and didn't have the time to stick around for even a bowl of cereal. It wasn't like Dante had anything edible other than pizza in his kitchen. Normally, Lady wouldn't touch the food her clients offered her because even though they selflessly set it out for her, she still somehow felt rude taking any of it. However, her hunger, she thought, might get the best of her that time. Little swirly, sandy cookies sat neatly on a small square of wax paper, cradled in a shallow, white dish. Next to the dish were two empty teacups and saucers of that same eggshell white. The teapot was the same color but a relief of a rose stood out on its side. Steam floated out of its spout carrying the warm, floral scent of tea. A small glass cup held sugar, a tiny silver spoon submerged in the white crystals. There was a small pitcher near it that Lady assumed held milk. Everything looked appetizing, and it was the most pleasant sight she had seen since she had entered the mansion.

Lady plucked one of the cookies from the dish, examining its golden tan color and the light browning of its peaks. She poured herself a cup of tea, adding a few spoonfuls of sugar and a tad of milk. She wasn't one to drink tea often; coffee was simply more popular in her part of the world. However, she did enjoy it when she got the chance to drink it.

As she waited to speak with Master Lannister, Lady sipped her hot tea and ate a few more cookies. She tried dipping them into the tea as she was certain that was what they were intended for, but she discovered that she much preferred them dry. They were salty but lightly sweet and had a slight nutty taste to them. The texture was smooth but powdery, feeling like the silky sand they shared their color with. She was a big fan of chocolate, and she would have loved if they were chocolate chip rather than shortbread, but they helped calm her appetite. That was for the best because it was taking Lannister quite some time to come in and start their meeting. It would be a few hours before Lady could get a proper meal.

After drinking two cupfuls of tea and eating three cookies, Lady sat with her legs crossed, tapping her fingernails on her knee while she stared out the window at the fountain outside. She briefly wondered why there were no chirping birds or flitting butterflies or any signs of life at all in the desolate courtyard. She was interrupted, however, when a violent shiver tore its way up her spine. A nervous knot coiled in her stomach, and Lady suddenly felt that she was being watched. The huntress scanned her surroundings, twisting this way and that to see if someone might be standing in the archways, but she found no one. There was no one standing outside the window either. She was totally alone, yet it felt as if someone had sat down on the couch opposite her.

Lady was startled when she heard footsteps and turned to see a portly, round-cheeked woman tip-toeing into the room. She gave Lady a slight smile but it was void of anything but indifference. She seemed almost hopeful as she scrutinized the huntress, but her expression was icy as if she doubted Lady could fulfill her hopes. She waddled over to the coffee table and felt the teapot with chubby fingers.

"The tea has gone cold," she said incredulously in the voice of a melancholy Mrs. Potts: one of Lady's favorite characters from _The Beauty and the Beast_ when she was a child. "I'll go prepare a fresh pot for you, miss."

Lady smiled at the woman. She couldn't help but find her cute like some sort of doll out of a set of figurines from another era. She wore a cobalt blue dress that barely left her shoes peeking out from beneath with a white, pleated apron and bonnet to match. She looked as if her cheeks should have been rosy, but like the butler, her skin was pale, almost sickly. She carefully picked the tray up from the table and waddled out of the room to the rhythm of the dishes rattling against the silver tray. Lady sighed, wishing impatiently that Lannister would meet with her so that she could get to work. She wasn't fond of the estate. It had a gloomy atmosphere about it that was quickly making her feel depressed.

Like a siren signaling his presence, Lannister entered the room to the distant shrieking of a teapot. Lady was instantly unsettled by the toothy smile he gave her. His teeth were jagged and the cracks between them browned by coffee stains. His nose was crooked like a bird's beak and his ears pointed like some sort of goblin's. His eyes were sort of beady, lacking any color. It appeared as if his pupils had taken over his irises. His lips were ruby red, standing out unnaturally against his greenish, pasty skin. Deep, purple circles sunk in beneath his eyes, and his hair was thin enough that she could liver spots mottling his scalp. His fingers were bony and their nails yellowed and overdue for a clipping. He wore a suit similar to the butler's but with a rose pinned over his heart, looking as if he had plucked it from one of the bushes outside. He was obviously very old, and Lady felt a little ashamed for finding him creepy. Sometimes old people just looked creepy for some reason, possibly because they reminded mortals of what awaited them in old age. However, Lady couldn't help but feel that his creepiness was not due to how old he looked. He reminded her of Dracula from the old movie. No, actually, the butler reminded her of Dracula. Lannister reminded her of Nosferatu, who was far creepier in her opinion.

"How are you today, Miss... ?"

"Arkham," she choked out, that name sticking like cotton in her throat, suffocating her. She hated that name just as her first name, just as anything that reminded her of her father. "I'm doing great, thank you. And yourself?"

Lannister smiled that creepy grin of his as he finally finished his shuffle to the couch across the table from her. He looked so brittle that Lady felt she could knock him over if she sneezed in his direction.

"I feel as good as a man my age can," he answered gleefully in his raspy falsetto tone before breaking into a fit of laughter that sounded like someone stomping on bagpipes.

"I'm sorry that I kept you waiting, Miss Arkham. I was engrossed in the most fascinating book, and I just had to finish it before I spoke with you." Lannister spoke slowly, drawing each syllable out more than necessary. Lady had noticed that a lot of elderly people spoke that way.

"That's alright. I'm in no hurry," she lied. She wanted to leave something terrible. "Let's get down to business."

Lannister nodded, gazing off at the corner as if it was telling him what he should say to her. He clicked his tongue a few times and scratched at his nose before the words he needed finally came to him.

"Mr. West informed you of what has been happening, I presume," said the man with almost the inflection of a question.

Mr. West—he must have been the butler. Lady shook her head, replying, "Actually, no, he didn't. He only said that you needed to meet with me about a demon problem."

Lannister nodded comprehensively. "Well, I hope you don't mind hearing it from me. I tend to ramble on in my old age!" Lannister uttered laughs that turned into coughs before clearing his crackling throat. Lady smiled at him once he had regained his composure, silently indicating she seldom minded hearing the story from him. Rather,she pitied him. He seemed incredibly lonely, so maybe what he needed was someone to listen to him ramble.

"About... a few weeks ago, I believe, it started. And in my precious library, of all places," said Lannister sadly, sounding as if he would cry. "I started to notice, when I would sit in there and read, that it felt like someone was watching me."

Lady nodded, suddenly far more interested than she had been, for she had felt that same sensation simply sitting in that very room.

"I didn't think much of it," said Lannister with a shrug and purse of his trembling, red lips. "I thought that maybe my niece had come up with a new game of peeping through the keyhole. But then my niece went to stay with her father for the week, and I thought that maybe it was Mr. West or Mrs. Porter, the butler and maid. At that point, I was thoroughly irked. I didn't want someone spying on me all hours when I was in the library, distracting me from my books!"

Lady resisted the smile that tugged at her lips or the chuckle that wanted to break free. She was taking the man seriously, but it was obvious in the dramatic way he explained things that he was enjoying telling his story. He spoke as if speaking to an audience at a storytelling convention, and just like a storyteller at such a convention, he sounded very rehearsed. Lady laughed inwardly at the image of the feeble man standing in front of a mirror and reading his story from crumpled notecards.

"But they go home on the weekends, you see. Then it's just myself and Jennifer—the kind woman who watches me when I'm to be here alone. But I still felt as if I was being watched, and I knew that every person I had hired couldn't possibly be spying on me. So I got a hunch then that something strange was definitely happening, but I kept on staying in my library because if I didn't, how could I get to the bottom of things?"

"Anyway, I started noticing that books would be left out that I never touched. Now before you call me senile, most of those misplaced books were things I've never needed like dictionaries, encyclopedias, and some of my niece's childrens' books. I may not have the best memory anymore, but I know I didn't get those books out because I had never once used those books. They were... 'space fillers,' if you will. I used to read to my niece, but she no longer asks me. She reads to herself now. But besides all that, I just brushed it off as my niece rummaging through my books."

"But then, things started happening that I couldn't explain. I would always feel a presence when I was very clearly alone. I could see people standing from the corner of my eye, but when I turned to look, they would be gone. And then, one day, I was standing near the mirror as I slid a book back onto the shelf. I saw a dark figure appear behind me, and my eyes shot up to the mirror. I only saw it for a split-second, but it was the most terrifying creature had ever seen, and I knew then that I had to call someone about it."

Lady nodded. "So this has been going on for quite some time?" Lannister nodded in confirmation. "Have you noticed anything new since you called me?"

"Yes, actually. It seems the demon is getting so bold as to come out of the library. And when it does, it seems it's trying to play pranks on me like some troublesome child. It would be endearing if it weren't for my fear that it will take it too far. Even if it hasn't physically harmed anyone yet, I do not feel its intentions are benevolent."

"And you're probably right," Lady replied. "Demons are rarely good."

_But some are better than humans,_ thought Lady fondly, the image of a certain devil floating into her mind.

After a long moment of silence, Lady asked, "Could you take me to the library?"

Lannister pursed his lips and shook his head. "I'm afraid not. It seems the demon doesn't want us to come in today."

"What do you mean?"

"It seems he is holding the door shut. Incredibly strong fellow," Lannister said in admiration. "The door is antique and quite fragile. I'm afraid I will not allow it to be forced."

"I understand," Lady replied, suppressing a sigh. Had she come there for nothing?

"I'm sorry you had to come here when you won't even be able to investigate the library. I had no idea this would happen. He must have overheard me calling you here," he whispered cautiously. Lady wanted to quirk a brow at his behavior. That last statement stood out strongly to her not because of what was said but how it was said.

"If you come back tomorrow, I'm sure the door will be unlocked then."

"Alright," Lady said with a nod, "I'll be back around the same time tomorrow."

Lannister smiled. "Thank you, Ms. Arkham. Will you be leaving now, or would you like to stay for more tea?"

_Hell, no!_

"I'm sorry. I'm afraid I'll have to turn down that invitation. I have plans." It wasn't entirely a lie. She had planned to spend time with Dante at some point, and since she had no other jobs for the rest of the day...

"Thank you again for coming by, and farewell. Mr. West will show you out."

Lady turned to find the stone-faced butler standing in the doorway. She said her 'goodbye's and 'thank you's to Mr. Lannister before following the butler out the way she came. Even as she exited the mansion to the courtyard, Lady still felt an incredible weight bearing down on her. In fact, it seemed to get far worse when she stepped outside. The huntress rushed for her bike sitting on the opposite side of the tall fence, and the moment she stepped off the manicured lawn, she felt that she could breathe again.

_Something's definitely not right with that place... I've got to talk to Dante._

* * *

**A/N:** If you've already read this before, you know it's not a new story. I had to take it down because of the MA content policy. Long story short, I changed my plans again, so I'm putting all my stories back up again. Just thought I would include that here in case anyone was wondering what's going on.


End file.
